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So about a month ago I had to make a decision regarding a smartphone platform and made the move to using the iPhone. I’ll refer you to my previous posts for the background on that. So its been very interesting and I am glad for the experience. I still walk around the house using the Lumia and actually like placing my 950 xl next to my iPhone to run comparisons and tests. But I pick up the iPhone when I leave the house while the Lumia sits on the charger.

A key element to my being able to make this move successfully has been Microsoft’s decision over the last few years to actively develop for other platforms. Obviously there is the process of learning a new OS and adjusting your work flow somewhat but using familiar apps, current accounts and services goes a long way in making the transition.

So here are the Microsoft apps on my iPhone

MS Office

Word

Excel

PowerPoint

OneNote

Outlook

OneDrive

Office Lens

Sway

RD Client

Bing

Bing Rewards

Skype for Business

Cortana

Azure Authenticator

Microsoft Health (connected to the Band 2)

Healthvault

Translator

MSN News

MSN Money

Channel 9

Microsoft Selfie

Xbox One Smartglass

Wunderlist

After installing the apps and logging in with my Microsoft account, my settings, content, filters or pointers as the case may be were all there.

Next I went on the hunt for non-Microsoft apps that would work regardless of being on the iPhone or my Windows 10 desktop or mobile device.

Here are the Cross Platform Apps I’ve installed and use across iOS and Windows.

Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Flipboard

Enpass

Ring

Insteon

Audible

Amazon

Ebay

Kindle

Slack

Straw

Life 360

Pandora

VPN App

Citrix Receiver

So I’m off to a good start. I’m actually feeling pretty good about managing the move with little disruption and my friends are having a great time having fun over it at my expense. At work, we are moving all our Lumia users to the iPhone. We are sending them to YouTube for a training session before we visit to drop off and set up the device. So I will revisit this topic periodically but its time to focus on other matters. BUILD just kicked off and I need to catch up on the keynote. We are prepping to move our organization to Windows 10 and there is the current security crisis plaguing health care that’s demanding immediate attention. Plenty to do and write about. See you soon!

I had lunch this past weekend with a dear friend who was my high school english teacher. He was a guiding figure in my teen years and we have stayed in touch through the years. He is 72 now and me 54. Like old men do, we reflected on the changes that have occurred in our professions and opined on the good and the bad. One of the things we agreed on was the speed of the change seems too fast and that was leading to a lack of control of the details and the outcome.

Microsoft figured this out when they saw the industry expanding beyond the desktop to mobile. They tried to meet the demand but figured out they had to change to adjust to the reality of what had happened and where they were positioned. They reasoned, Lets develop really good versions of our products for these other platforms AND try and see if we can lay the foundation for the next big leap. They adapted to roll with their situation and, hopefully, get in front of the trends. I still have my Lumia 950XL and I still use it daily to check updates, features and to see where it will best fit the needs for myself and my organization.

Fact is life is moving at a rapid pace. We have immediate access to information, people and services. This “here and now”, “immediate access”, “wherever I am”, “no limits”, expectation is rapidly becoming the standard. This sets the expectation for all industries, including my own, health care, among them. When we were moving to Windows 8 on the desktop adopting a phone that paralleled that experience made sense. With Windows 10 it doesn’t at this time. Most individuals in my industry utilize iPhones and I oversee the technology they use on the devices. It was time for us to change as Microsoft has changed. Now if the Windows 10 mobile story comes to full fruition I’ll be there to champion that and help others through the adoption.

People are both the recipients and the agents of that change. Our reaction, that is the adoption to change, never stops the change thats coming. We can have a positive impact by guiding and directing it but often, if you think you can stop it, you end up frustrated and hurt. How many of us know people stuck in one of these phases, never getting to acceptance? Hopefully you don’t work with any of them!

To do things faster, with fewer errors, across broader boundries requires us to adopt new tool sets and skills. So how does one manage that, how do you adapt to adjust to this new reality? I have a few thoughts:

The ball is moving down the field. Become a learner. Determine to learn something new each week. Use resources like YouTube, Audible Books, Podcasts, a online or on site class, but stretch and enrich yourself.

Stay up to date. You can connect with collegues on LinkedIn, follow experts, vendors and corporations on Twitter and Facebook to keep track of trends and breaking news.

Do something new. If you are not used to the new equipment or software use it to do a test run or project. Get with someone who has some experience and work through a few scenarios. Dont fear it or ignore it, learn to make it work for you.

Get involved in whats going on around you. Find out how changes could be impacting your industry, department, organization, community and plug in to the processes directing the change.

The only constant moving forward is change and each of us needs to develop techniques for dealing with the impact of that force with our lives. Heres hoping your aware, accepting and getting ready for the ride!

So yes, I have ordered an iPhone. Lets get this out of the way, in the past I have referred to Apple products as “toys” and “entertainment devices” and always considered Microsoft as the leader in business software and productivity platforms. And they still are. But they have made a change in strategy with Windows 10 mobile that leaves its current users in a holding pattern while they “re-trench” and attempt to leap frog Apple and Android by envisioning a future where your phone IS LITERALLY a PC (check out this video to see what I mean https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCJ9pYuxDNc). That’s cool but its a few years off. My months with the Windows 10 Lumia 950 XL has shown this device to be a prototype. I mean it works its just not stable enough right now to be a daily driver. I am responsible for a business that needs productivity and stability today.

Fortunately Microsoft has also shifted in this regard and many of the products I used on its mobile platform will be there when I move to the iPhone. Office, OneDrive, Office Lens, One Note, Bing, Cortana, Skype for Business, Sway, MS Health (still connects to the Microsoft Band), Translator, Channel 9 are all there. I can still even connect to my Xbox and play Halo Spartan Assault (when I am home of course!). This wasn’t true 2 years ago. Under new leadership Microsoft has embraced the present by developing more aggressively for Apple and Android (Apple makes me less nervous than Goggle regarding data security) while seeing if they can get a jump on the future of mobile where you plug your phone into a monitor and its also your PC. They have also started to integrate these other OS’ into the Microsoft infrastructure so these devices can be secured and managed by our networks. So the tide has changed and in this case its a good thing; at least for right now. I’ll be using and playing with the Windows 10 Lumia in the background and seeing what develops. Could this be a use case for clinicians in the future? Carrying a device is such an issue in the clinical setting BUT if that device were the size of a phone and we provided docks they plugged into for a full screen experience when needed, yeah I could see that working. We will see.